During act four, Lady Macbeth does not appear in the play. This both allows for the rapid advances in the plot and also helps to symbolise the ruin of their marriage, falling apart of their relationship and the fact that she is no longer nearly as important in Macbeth’s life or his plans.
The majority of the play is written in blank verse, with a base unit of iambic pentameter - though Shakespeare used this in quite a free way. Some of the lesser characters, including Lady Macduff and the porter speak in prose to show their insignificance.
By act five, however, Lady Macbeth also speaks in prose whilst she is sleepwalking as she has lost the customary controls of verse and is no longer worthy to speak it. This helps to signify the deterioration of her character and the difference at that point compared to how she was in act one. The reason for this lies in the very rigid nature of Lady Macbeth’s self-discipline. All throughout the play she has hidden her guilt and repressed her conscience until it reached the point where these feeling were let out in her sub-conscience and she madly re-enacted her murders in her sleep. The painful irony – the contrast between her curt assurance in act two and her foulness in act five reminds us of the dangers of ambition and evil. Eventually she commits suicide in a desperate final attempt of her mind to cleanse itself.
Overall I would say that Lady Macbeth’s character changed from - what we presumed her to be – a contented thane’s wife to murderer, to a madwoman through her possession of ambition and evil, masked by her innocent appearance, despite evil reality.
At the same time Lady Macbeth’s character is declining, her relationship is also deteriorating and her husband’s downfall occurring. Our initial impression of her relationship with Macbeth is that they are very close. She immediately judges him as being ‘too full o’th’milk of human kindness’ – too decent and squeamish – to murder Duncan. This informs us that she must have had similar experiences previously to make this judgement. She also knows that ‘the valour of her tongue’ is just as powerful as his sword and that by playing on his fears and wants she has control over him. At this point in the play – act one scene seven - the couple is still very close. Macbeth has encountered the weird sisters and heard their predictions that he will become thane of Cawdor – which became true – and become king. He wrote to his wife and informed her of this. They both individually had thoughts of using murder to achieve this although when they met Macbeth had doubts and wanted to stop.
‘We will proceed no further in this business.’
It was however Lady Macbeth who used her manipulative powers such as insulting him saying he is not acting like a man, accusing him of not loving her and using indirect language to gently persuade him. She spoke in double meanings such as ‘great business’ means feasting, or murder. She also cleverly greets him with thoughts of future greatness in the knowledge that this would fuel his ambition to be king – the only weakness in his personality strong enough to induce murder. Lady Macbeth was definitely very instrumental in this murder, however for the murders of Banquo and the Macduff’s she was ‘innocent to the deed’ and did not contribute towards Macbeth’s downfall. Many people argue that Lady Macbeth was very influential in what followed Macbeth’s first visit to the witches and his gradual corruption, obsession with murder and eventual failure, madness and death. This is because she was the domineering person in their relationship who persuaded her husband initially to murder. However, if he had not murdered Duncan would the fate have happened? I think that even if she had not been so ‘evil’ and influential, – as we know from her character – Macbeth, having spoken to the witches would not have been able to ignore the prophecies. We already know from Lady Macbeth’s analytical soliloquy of him pre-murder that ambition was very powerful for him. I think that having involved himself once in supernaturalism, if Lady Macbeth had not persuaded him to kill the king so rapidly, he would have returned to the witches and his downfall and corruption would have been inevitable.
As the couple grow apart we see how Lady Macbeth is no longer important to him and this outlines the fact that he had this ‘seed’, she only nurtured it, though it probably would’ve slowly grown anyway. Overall I think that Lady Macbeth did influence Macbeth during their times of close relationship but wasn’t her main factor in his downfall as once the witches had started playing about with his fate, they weren’t going to stop.
When looking at how I would present the character of Lady Macbeth in a production I first need to consider the context of the play and some of the main themes within it.
Firstly, this play was written in the early seventeen century when King James the First, king of Scotland, England and Ireland was ruling. He was very involved in the supernatural himself, which was somewhat in fashion at the time and so Shakespeare caters for this interest of witchcraft and heresy. He also flatters the king by referring in act four scene three to how King Edward could wonderfully cure people of ‘The Evil’ just by touching them. In the Cambridge school copy of the text, it tells us that King James used to do this himself.
In eleventh century Scotland, many of the characters did exist with a similar series of events. To add interest to the play however, Shakespeare changed Duncan from being an evil to innocent king and blamed the murder on Macbeth. Because Banquo was an ancestor of King James, he was also made innocent in the play. It is interesting to observe that in history, Lady Macbeth had no part in the possible murder. This supports my idea that she was not very instrumental because murder still occurred.
The fact that Lady Macbeth was evil and persuaded her husband to kill the king will have been added to shock the audience, who firmly believed in the divine right of kings and had a deeply ordered society. The Macbeths upset this idea enhancing their despicable characters.
Shakespeare also added the supernatural element to the play, which will have fuelled the audience’s interest for magic as well as thickening the plot of Macbeth. It also added philosophical points and morals to the play as it gently warned the audience about the potential corruption of supernatural as they observed its influence towards Macbeth’s downfall. Other morals include ‘crime does not pay’, ‘an oppressive hierarchical society systematically produces corrupt individuals’ and ‘a fatal flaw (such as ambition) in ones character can lead to the fall in a great man’.
When putting all these ideas into effectively advising Lady Macbeth of how to portray her character I would advises her to make as big a contrast as possible between her calm, disciplined character when towards the end of the play. By making this contrast abrupt – for example when Macbeth enters in act three scene two she could successfully enhance the appearance and reality of the characters. I think she should vividly re-enact the murders and the washing blood from her hands in scene five. This symbolism should be clearly shown, as it is an important theme in the play, the repeated imagery of blood and being washed clean. The fact that she could not wash the imaginary blood from her hands and Macbeth earlier having an inability to sleep represents the fact that they cannot wash away their guilt. This imagery comes from the fact that Poncious Pilate said to Jesus ‘I was my hands of this deed’ when he had to crucify Jesus, despite the knowledge of his innocence due to the crowd’s insistence. He ‘washed his hands’ of Jesus’ blood, but he was innocent. The Macbeths are guilty and so can never wash the blood from their hands.
For a stage production, I think to have blood covering her hands would be effective to enhance the point as the doctor and maid made it clear that it is actually just her imagination. To add drama and tension to the scene an echo from offstage, perhaps in a stage whisper could be used after each of her lines to make sure the audience understands them and their impact. Another theme in the play is the idea of sleep. Mac
Says that only the innocent can enjoy sleep. This is indeed true, and shown in the fact that Macbeth, troubled by his guilt cannot sleep and stars hallucinating. Lady Macbeth reaches the point where her guilt is pushed out much out of her conscious state that it enters her sub-conscience state and prevents her from a peaceful sleep. Lady Macbeth’s character clearly shows this through the sleepwalking scene.
Appearance and reality is clearly one of the main themes in the play. It is mentioned several times; firstly when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are trying to cover up the murders in their actions towards greeting Duncan and others. Secondly we can see it in Macbeth’s desperate attempts near the end of the play to appear strong and Lady Macbeths to appear disciplined and stable. Their relationship may also be based on this them as when they are with others they address each other pleasantly – for example, ‘my dearest love’ and ‘dear wife’. These gives an outward appearance of them as being loving couples whereas the reality is that their relationship was quite tense and non-existent from act three onwards. One of the ways in which Macbeth told his wife to cover up their evil was:
‘Look like th’innocent flower,
but be the serpent under’t’
Overall, My main piece of advice to Lady Macbeth would be to enhance the drama of her character for the time and the contrasts between her on her own and with her husband; Therefore enhancing the reality and appearance of her character.
In conclusion, I would say that Lady Macbeth’s character was evil, though with some compassion and will have shocked audiences of the time. She helped start Macbeth with his downfall but it was really down to his ambition and links with the supernatural. Because of this insignificant, yet important part she plays I would advises an actress/producer to enhance the ideas of the blood imagery and sleep and the appearance and reality them within the play as we as promoting the various morals and ideas that are unravelled within Macbeth.
Act 1 scene 5 lines 13-14
